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18 - Bransford Of Rainbow Range by Eugene Manlove Rhodes · Bransford Of Rainbow Range

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Venteen twentieth century. And there that hulking prejudice sat all
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: across the road. I took my hat, I took my coat,
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  Speaker 1: my load, I settled fair. I approached that awful incubus
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  Speaker 1: with an absent minded air, and I walked directly through him,
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  Speaker 1: as if he wasn't there an obstacle. Charlotte Perkins Stetson.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Johnny Dinez rode with a pleasant jingle down the shady
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  Speaker 1: street of Los Banos Deslanta, Yualia del nort. His saddle
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  Speaker 1: was new, a caravan wrought with silver. His bridle shown
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  Speaker 1: as the sun, his spurs as bright stars. He shed
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  Speaker 1: music from his feet. Jeff saw him turn to Casa Escobar.
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  Speaker 1: Apple blossoms made a fragrant lane for him. He paused
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  Speaker 1: at Jeff's tree. Alto a ye, said Johnny. The words
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  Speaker 1: as sharp command can be managed in two brisk syllables.
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  Speaker 1: The sound is then all we It is a Chris
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  Speaker 1: spent startling sound, and the sense of it in our
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  Speaker 1: idiom is hand's up. Jeff had been taking a late
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  Speaker 1: breakfast Alfresco. He made glad room on his bench, light stranger,
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  Speaker 1: and look at your saddle, pretty slick saddle. Too. Gess
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  Speaker 1: your playmates must have went home talking to themselves last night.
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  Speaker 1: They're gonna kill a Maverick for you at Arcadia and
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  Speaker 1: give a barbecue, said Johnny. The colt of nil Admirari
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  Speaker 1: reaches its highest pitch of prosperity in the cow countries.
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  Speaker 1: And Johnny knew that it was for him to broach tidings, unasked. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: that reminds me. How's old Lar's Forcina, said Jeff. Now
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  Speaker 1: free to question him. He's all right, said Johnny. Casually
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  Speaker 1: gonna marry one or more of the nurses. They're hold
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  Speaker 1: an elimination contest. Now, say Johnny, when you go back,
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  Speaker 1: I wish you to tell him I didn't do it,
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  Speaker 1: cross my heart, and hope to die if I did. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: he knows it wasn't you, said Johnny. Jeff shook his head. Doubtfully,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: evidence was pretty strong, pretty strong? Who was it thin?
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  Speaker 1: Why Lake himself? The old hog? If Lake keeps on
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  Speaker 1: like this, he's going to have people down on him,
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  Speaker 1: said Jeff, who did the holmesing John Wesley, Oh, John Wesley.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: John Wesley said, denas scornfully, you think the sun rises
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  Speaker 1: and sets in old John Wesley pringle. Nah, he didn't
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  Speaker 1: get back till it was all over. I cannot tell
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  Speaker 1: a lie. I did it with my little hatchet. Must
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  Speaker 1: have had it sharpened up, said Jeff. Tell it to me.
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  Speaker 1: Why there isn't much to tell, said Dinas, suddenly modest.
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  Speaker 1: Come to think of it, I had a right considerable help.
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  Speaker 1: There was a young college chap. He first put it
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  Speaker 1: into my head that it wasn't you that would be
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  Speaker 1: the devil, said Jeff, ignoring the insult. Just so name's white,
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  Speaker 1: and so's he Billy, white, s M and g P.
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  Speaker 1: I don't just remember them degrees, said Jeff. Ah, keep
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  Speaker 1: still and you'll hear more. They stand for some man
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  Speaker 1: and good people. Well, as I was a sayin Billy,
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  Speaker 1: he seemed to think it wasn't you. He stuck to it.
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  Speaker 1: That badinski, that's what he called you. Was in a
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  Speaker 1: garden just when the bank was robbed. Johnny contemplated the
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  Speaker 1: apple tree over his head. It was a wandering and
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  Speaker 1: sober glance. But a muscle twitched in his cheek, and
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  Speaker 1: he made no further explanation about the garden. And then
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  Speaker 1: I remembered about nigger babe throwing you off, And I
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  Speaker 1: began to think maybe you didn't crack the safe after all.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: And there was some other things, little things that made
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  Speaker 1: Billy and Jimmie Phillips, he was taking cards in the
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  Speaker 1: game too, made him think maybe it was Lake. But
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't no proof, not to say proof. And that's
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  Speaker 1: where I come in, well, said Jeff, as Johnny paused.
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  Speaker 1: Simple enough, once Y knowed, how, said Johnny modestly. I'd
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  Speaker 1: been reading lots of them to take active books, Sherlock
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  Speaker 1: Holmes and all them fellas. I got Billy to have
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  Speaker 1: his folk stold Lake's sister away for the night so
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  Speaker 1: she wouldn't be scared. Then me and Billy and Jimmie
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  Speaker 1: Phillips and Monty we broke in and blowed up Lake's
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  Speaker 1: private safe. No trouble at all Since the bank robbin,
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  Speaker 1: every one's been tellin round as how it ought to
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  Speaker 1: be done, crackin' safes. Funny how a fellow picks up
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  Speaker 1: little scraps, a useful knowledge like that, things you'd think
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  Speaker 1: he'd remember might come in handy most any time, and
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  Speaker 1: then forgets all about him. I wrote it down this time,
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  Speaker 1: won't forget it again, well said Jeff again. Oh yes,
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  Speaker 1: and there was a nice money, all the notes and
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  Speaker 1: all the gold he could tote. Jeff's eye wandered to
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  Speaker 1: the new saddle. I kept some of the yellow stuff
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  Speaker 1: as a souvenir, half a quarter, maybe a pint, said Johnny.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want no reward for doing a good deed,
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  Speaker 1: and that's all Lake is a long, ugly word, said
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  Speaker 1: Jeff thoughtfully. Well what do you say, prompted Johnny. Oh well,
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  Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, said Jeff. You showed marvelous penetration.
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  Speaker 1: I'm marvelous. But say Johnny, if the money hadn't been there,
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't that have been awkward? Oh? Billy was pretty sure
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  Speaker 1: Lake was the man, and we figured he hadn't bothered
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  Speaker 1: to move it. You be in the goat that way?
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  Speaker 1: What made you be a goat? Jeff? That whole performance
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  Speaker 1: was the most idiotic break I ever knew a grown
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  Speaker 1: up man to get off. I knew you were not
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  Speaker 1: strictly accountable, but why didn't you say judge your honors, sir.
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  Speaker 1: At the time the bank was being robbed, I was
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  Speaker 1: in a garden with a young lady talking about the hereafter,
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  Speaker 1: the here and the heere tofore on the contrary. What
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  Speaker 1: made your billy think it was? Lake? Johnny told him
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  Speaker 1: in detail. Pretty good article of plain thinking, wasn't it.
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  Speaker 1: He concluded, Yet, he mightn't have got started at all
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  Speaker 1: on the right track if he hadn't had the straight
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  Speaker 1: tip about your being in the garden. Johnny's eye reverted
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  Speaker 1: to the apple tree. Lake found your noseguard. You know
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  Speaker 1: where you left it? I reckon maybe he saw you
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  Speaker 1: leave it there, say, Jeff Lake's grandfather must have been
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  Speaker 1: a white man. Anyhow, he's got one decent drop of
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  Speaker 1: blood in him from somewhere. For when we arrested him,
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  Speaker 1: he didn't say a word about the garden. That was
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  Speaker 1: rather a good stunt. I think, bully for Lake, just
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  Speaker 1: once right you are, and the mister j Dnis I've
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  Speaker 1: been thinking, Jeff began. Johnny glanced at him anxiously, and
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  Speaker 1: I've about come to the conclusion that we're some narrow
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  Speaker 1: contracted and bigoted in Rainbow. We don't know at all.
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  Speaker 1: We ain't the only pebble. From what I've seen, these
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  Speaker 1: Arcadia men, they seem to be pretty good stuff. And
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  Speaker 1: like it's not. It's just the same way all along
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  Speaker 1: the beach. There's your mister White and Griffith and Gibson.
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  Speaker 1: Did I tell you about Gibson? Johnny flashed a brilliant smiles.
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  Speaker 1: Always looked larger than they really were, because Johnny was
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  Speaker 1: a very small man. I saw Griffith and he gave
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  Speaker 1: me his version several times. He's really upset Griffith. Last
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  Speaker 1: time he told me he leaned up against my neck
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  Speaker 1: and wept because there was only ten commandments. Didn't see Gibson,
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  Speaker 1: did you you know him? No? Pappy picked him up,
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  Speaker 1: or he picked Pappy up. Rather, hasn't been seen since.
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  Speaker 1: I guess Gibbey, old boy has gone to the wild bunch.
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  Speaker 1: He wouldn't suspect you of being innocent. And he dreamed
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  Speaker 1: he dwelt in marble Hall's making shoes for the state.
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  Speaker 1: So he gets cold feet and he just naturally evaporates.
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  Speaker 1: Good night. Yes, he said he was going to hike out,
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  Speaker 1: or something to that effect, responded Jeff absently, the fact
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  Speaker 1: being that he was not thinking of Gibson at all,
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  Speaker 1: but was pondering deep upon miss eleandor Hoffmann. Had she
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  Speaker 1: gone to New York according to the original plan, It
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  Speaker 1: did not seem probable. Her face stood out before him, bright,
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  Speaker 1: vivid as sparkling, as he had seen her last in
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  Speaker 1: the court room of Arcadia. Good heavens, was that only
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  Speaker 1: a week ago? Seven days? It seemed seven years. No,
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  Speaker 1: she had not gone, at least certainly not until she
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  Speaker 1: was sure that he, Jeff, had made good his escape.
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  Speaker 1: Then perhaps she might have gone. Perhaps her mother had
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  Speaker 1: made her go. Oh well, New York wasn't far as
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  Speaker 1: he had told her that first wonderful day on Rainbow Rim.
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  Speaker 1: What a marvelous day that was. Jeff was suddenly struck
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  Speaker 1: with the thought that he had never seen Eleanor's mother,
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  Speaker 1: Great Scott. She had a father too, How annoying. He
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  Speaker 1: meditated upon this unpleasant theme for his face. Then, as
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  Speaker 1: if groping in a dark room, he had suddenly turned
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  Speaker 1: on the light. His thought changed to what a girl, Ah,
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  Speaker 1: what a wonderful girl. Where is she? Looking up? Jeff
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  Speaker 1: became once more aware of Johnny Denas's leg curled around
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  Speaker 1: the horn of the new saddle, elbow on knee, cheekon hand,
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  Speaker 1: contemplating his poor friend with benevolent pity. And then Jeff
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  Speaker 1: knew that he could make no queries of Johnny Dines.
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  Speaker 1: Johnny spoke soothingly. You are in North America. This is
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  Speaker 1: the twentieth century. Your name is Bransford. That round bright
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  Speaker 1: object is the sun. This direction is east. This way
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  Speaker 1: is called up. This is a stream of water that
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  Speaker 1: you see. It is called the Rio River Grande Pig.
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  Speaker 1: We are advertised by our loving friends. I cannot sing
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  Speaker 1: the old songs. There's a reason two of a kind
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  Speaker 1: flocked together. Never trump your partner's ace. It's a wise
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  Speaker 1: child that dreads the fire. Wake up, come out of it.
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  Speaker 1: Change cars. I ought to kill you, said Jeff. Now giggle,
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  Speaker 1: you idiot, and make everybody hate you. Wait till I
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  Speaker 1: say adi else to my old campadre and the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the Escoba hinte, and I'll side you to El Paso.
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  Speaker 1: Not i little Johnny. He'll make San Elizario's ferry by
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  Speaker 1: noon and Helm's by dark. Thought, maybe so you'd be
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  Speaker 1: going along? Why no, said Jeff uneasily. I guess maybe
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  Speaker 1: I'll go up to El Paso and june around the spell.
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  Speaker 1: Oh well, just as you say, such beIN the case,
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  Speaker 1: I'll be joggin' better. Wait till after dinner. I'll square
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  Speaker 1: out with Don Francisco. If anything's missing. No, that makes
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  Speaker 1: too long a jaunt for this afternoon. Me for San Elizario,
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  Speaker 1: so long. But beyond the first Asequia, he turned and
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  Speaker 1: rode back. Funny thing, Jeff, remember me telling you about
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  Speaker 1: a girl I saw on May Hill the day nigger
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  Speaker 1: Babe throwed you off. Now what was that girl's name? Ah?
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  Speaker 1: Forgotten again? Oh? Yes, Hoffman, miss eleanor Hoffman. Well she's
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  Speaker 1: at Arcadia still. The mother lady was all for going
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  Speaker 1: back to New York. But no, sir, girl says she's
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  Speaker 1: twenty one, likes Arcadia and she's going to stay a
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  Speaker 1: spell these ways. So I hear, I will kill you,
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  Speaker 1: said Jeff. Here wait till I saddle my nag and
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  Speaker 1: say goodbye beyond San Elizadio. As they climbed the pass
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  Speaker 1: of all the winds, the two friends halted to breathe
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  Speaker 1: their horses. Jeff said, Johnny rather soberly. You can kick
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  Speaker 1: me after I say my little piece. I'll think poorly
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  Speaker 1: of you if you don't. But ain't him making Maybe
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  Speaker 1: a mistake. That girl, Now, nice girl and all that,
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  Speaker 1: but that girl's got money. Jeff, I hate a fool
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  Speaker 1: worse than a knave any day of the week, said Jeff.
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  Speaker 1: And the man that would let money keep him from
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  Speaker 1: the only girl, Why, Johnny, he's so much more of
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  Speaker 1: a fool than the other fellow is a scoundrel. I
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  Speaker 1: get you, said Johnny. You mean that a submarine boat
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  Speaker 1: is better built for roping steers than a Maugul engine
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  Speaker 1: is skillful at painting steeples. And you wonder if you
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  Speaker 1: can't get a fresh horse somewhere and go on through
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  Speaker 1: to Arcadia tonight, something like that, admitted Jeff. Besides, he
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  Speaker 1: added lightly, while I'd like that girl just as well
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  Speaker 1: if I didn't have a cent. Why, as it happens,
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  Speaker 1: I'm pretty well fixed myself. I've got money to throw
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  Speaker 1: at the little dicky birds, all kinds of money. Got
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  Speaker 1: a fifty one percent interest in a copper mine over
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  Speaker 1: at Harkuhala that's been paying me all the way from
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  Speaker 1: ten to five thousand clear per each and every year
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  Speaker 1: for the past seven years. Besides what I pay a
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  Speaker 1: lad for lookout to keep anybody but himself from stealing
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  Speaker 1: any of it. He's been buying real estate for me
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  Speaker 1: in Los Angeles lately. Johnny's jaw dropped in unaffected, amazed.
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  Speaker 1: All this while before you and Leo hit Rainbow, Sure,
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  Speaker 1: said Jeff. And you workin for forty a month and
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  Speaker 1: stealing your own beef, then saving up and buying your
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  Speaker 1: little old brand along with Bib and Leo and old
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  Speaker 1: Wes joggin along, workin' like a yaller dog with fleas well?
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  Speaker 1: Why not? Wasn't I having a heap of fun? Where
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  Speaker 1: can I see any better time than I had here?
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  Speaker 1: Or find better friends? Money's no good by itself. I
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: haven't drawn a dollar from Arizona since I left. It
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  Speaker 1: was fun to make the mind go round at first,
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  Speaker 1: but when it got so it worked, I looked for
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: something else more amusing. I should think you'd want to
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: travel anyhow, travel, echoed Jeff. Travel. Why you damned fool.
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  Speaker 1: I'm here now? Will you stay here if you marry her? Jeff?
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  Speaker 1: So you've no objection to make If I've got a
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  Speaker 1: few dollars, that squares everything, all right? Does it not
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: a heap of protest from you? Now? See here? You
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: everlasting fool. I'm just the same man I was fifteen
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  Speaker 1: minutes ago when you thought I didn't have any money.
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  Speaker 1: If I'm fit for her now I was then? If
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: I wasn't good enough then, I'm not good enough now.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: But I wasn't thinking of her. I was thinking of
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: how it would look. Look, who cares how it looks?
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Just a silly prejudice. They say, what say? They let
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: them say, Johnny. Maybe I was just stringing you. If
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I was lying about the money, how about it? Then
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: changed your mind again? You wasn't lying, was you? Shan't
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: tell you. It doesn't really make any difference anyhow. End
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: of Chapter seventeen.